untitled
by iproceed
Summary: The passing of a family member brings Brooke Davis back to Tree hill. How will it be for the now model to see everyone she hasn't seen in two years since leaving town. Haley/Brooke


She could feel her pulse change speeds as the car made it's way along the streets of Tree Hill. Her eyes took in everything, and even though she hadn't been there in years, it was all so familiar, nothing had changed. It definitely wasn't like the chaotic streets of New York that she had became accustomed to over the years. She swore to herself that she would never come back to this place, too many bad memories but today wasn't about her, it was about her father. Feeling the car come to a stop she let out a small sigh.

The women sitting next to her took her hand into her own, "Are you okay sweet heart?"

"I'm okay."

"We should probably get in there, you don't want all the good seats to be taken."

"This is a funeral not a movie theater, there are no good seats, Emily."

Emily nodded "Because of that I'll push aside all of your snide remarks. Come on."

She pulled herself out of the car and took a deep breath as Emily put her arm around her. She liked Emily, she was one of the only ones who didn't let her get away with what she wanted. You would think that would be a reason to dislike her but it made her feel like she had someone in her life who actually cared for her and didn't just say yes to her because they were scared of being fired. Emily was her assistant and had been for two years, but before that she was her friend.

As soon as they entered the building Brooke was aware of the eyes that were on her and the sound of faint whispers. Paying them no mind she moved along the lobby as fast as she could, she didn't want to stop and talk to anyone. She didn't need to hear anybody tell her how sorry they were for her and her family's loss. They made their way to their seats and were greeted by Brooke's mother. The pair had never been close and barely kept in contact, but the teenager didn't mind when her mother put her arm around her and kissed her forehead.

The funeral had went well, as well as one could go. After the service everyone went to Victoria's home. For awhile Brooke had sat in the room which was once her bedroom, everything was the same as she had left it. It was weird being back in that house so she decided to go and get some fresh air and managed to get Emily to stay in the house, insisting that she would be okay. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful for Emily being there, she loved Emily. It was just she knew why she wanted to get out the house, she did want to get away from everything, but she also wanted to see someone.

The streets were quiet, the only thing that she could hear was the sound of her high heels clicking off of the ground as she walked along the pavement. It wasn't long before she was outside of a familiar building. They were all familiar but this one even more so. This was the place that she wanted to go to, but not that she was actually outside of the cafe she wasn't so sure about it. The reaction she would get wasn't clear to her. It could be a smile and a hug, or a slap in the face for just up and leaving and not returning any phone calls.

Glancing inside, she saw that the place was pretty empty, just a few guys sitting there. Not surprising considering the time and on a Friday night. Normally on a Friday night Brooke would be out partying. It was a routine really. Friday nights were always show nights and when a show went well, which all of them did, they would all head out to one of the hotspots and just party the night away. Even though it was only one night, if felt weird not doing that. She had became so accustomed to the life that she now led. The moment she walked into the cafe, general chatter ceased. She tried her best not to roll her eyes at the horn dogs. The young man at the counter was doing the same as the older men sitting at the front of the cafe. You couldn't blame them really, it wasn't like she blended in the crowd. There was something about her that radiated a sense of great charm and purpose. Her gaze fell on an empty booth to the right of her and her body followed.. The guy in the booth opposite her looked away, but not before doing a double take as he noticed who she was.

"Well, well, well, Brooke Davis back in Tree Hill, are my eyes deceiving me?"

Upon hearing the voice, she smiled "Deb."

Deb gave her a quick pat on the shoulder before sitting down "I heard about your dad, how are you holding up?" Brooke just shrugged before smiling sadly "Everyone is very proud of you, you know. Nathan has half of your work on his bedroom wall."

This caused Brooke to chuckle "I'll give him an autograph."

"I'm assuming that you came to see a certain young lady. The one other than myself that is."

"I just came in to get a drink."

"I'm many things, naive isn't one of them." Deb smiled "I'll get you a drink, Haley will be back in twenty minutes. Oh, and you should have told me that you would be stopping by, imagine how many cups of coffee I'd sell."

Brooke just laughed and shook her head. Deb was always fun to be around. Whenever the basketball team would win a game, Deb would always allow everyone to go back to hers and party. Not the most responsible thing to do by a parent, but to a bunch of teenager's it was the coolest thing.

Deb came back to the table with a coffee, but Brooke shook her head "Thank you but I should get going, it's late and I have a flight to catch." She was lying of course, and it was so obvious, she didn't even know why she was trying to make excuses up "Look, I can't see her, I'm not ready."

"It's been two years, isn't that long enough?"

"Deb, you don't understand."

"I understand that she was crying for months on end because you just got up and left without telling anybody. I understand that whenever she sees your face on a magazine, or on the TV that it hurts her."

"Debbie." Brooke sighed.

"Brooklyn." Came the reply in the same tone that she had used "I'm not judging. Really, I'm not. I'm just telling you to talk to her, you owe her that much."

"Fine."

"Good, because here she is."

Horrified Brooke looked behind her and saw a car pulling up which she guessed was Haley's "What? You said twenty minutes! This has not been twenty minutes."

"I knew that you would have been under the impression that you have twenty minutes to figure out how to get away. So I lied to you" Deb shrugged "Plus, I got those guys out of here for you. Do you know how pissed off they were at me for that? You owe me a favour, and that is to talk to her. Stop being a coward and face her, It's Haley what's the worst that can happen?"

"You can't use a Dr Pepper slogan as an argument against me."

Deb walked out of the cafe leaving Brooke and the obscenities leaving her mouth behind. As casually as she could, Brooke sat back down and lowered her gaze, staring at the granite on the table. Maybe Haley wouldn't notice her there and then she could just slip out without her knowing she was there. These thoughts really were going on in her head.

"You plan on avoiding me any longer?," Haley's voice interrupts Brooke's thoughts and causes her eyes to move to the other girls.

"No. Well, not forever. Deb wouldn't have let me."

Both could see the tension on each others face. Deciding to take the first step Haley sat down at the other side of the booth and smiled softy "Well, it's good to see you again. Really good."

"No name calling or a slap in the face?"

The blonde shook her head "I've thought about it but, I just wanted my friend back. I've missed you..a lot."

Brooke's heart ached slightly, "I've missed you too, Hales."

"You look different, good, but you know, it's been two years."

"A lot can change in two years, looks wise." Brooke nodded "You are a fake blonde now, I see."

"Yeah, I guess I fit in with all the other cheerleaders now."  
Brooke arched her eyebrow "You're a cheerleader?" A small nod was her response "Damn."

"Well like you said, a lot can change in two years."

"How much has changed?"

Now it was her turn to look down at the granite "Allot can change in two years."

"Is that going to be the whole basis of our conversation?"

Looking up, Haley shook her head "You are the one who left Brooke."

"Well, I'm not here for long, so you can go back to hating me in peace." Brooke got up and headed towards the door.

"No, wait." Haley sighed, she wanted to be mad at her, she was mad but not to the point were she could just block her out, that would have been easier, but apparently life doesn't throw her easy obstacles. "I don't hate you, it's just you left without saying anything. Do you know how that made me feel? After I told you how I felt and you couldn't even give me a goodbye, or answer one of my phone calls. I called you everyday for three whole months. Then I stopped because I knew that you were never going to answer. Each time I called, the more I got upset."

"I would have called you, I just got busy."

"For two whole years? There wasn't one moment in that period of time when you could have picked up the phone?"

"I was scared." Brooke's voice raising slightly "I couldn't handle it. The things people were saying to me, it hurt, I couldn't handle it. Then I got offered the modeling contract so I took it. It felt like the perfect thing to do, I could just get away from everyone. I didn't have time to think about it, they wanted a answer right away, so I took it." She looked at Haley, the pain evident in her eyes "I know that I hurt you, and trust me I don't feel good about that, it hurts me that I did that to you, but I went out and made something of myself and I can't be sorry for that."

"You don't think I'm proud of you?" Haley replied moving closer to her "I'm so proud of you. I'm not mad that you went away to purse something, I'm just mad you left the way you did, you wouldn't even call me. I was hurt as well, the things they were saying to you were the exact things that they were saying to me. I needed you there, even if it was through a phone call."

"What about when I needed you? I came out to everyone and you denied that you were gay. You didn't want to be seen around me. I needed you there for me and you were ran away. I'm not the only one who did something wrong."

"I know and that is why I kept trying to call you."

The brunets expression softened "I was pissed off, I didn't want to answer your calls. You shut me out because you didn't want people to think you were gay, so I'm sorry if answering your phone calls wasn't the top of my priorities. I do wish that along the line I would have stopped being stubborn and just called you, but I thought it was too late. I didn't know what your reaction would be, and I was too scared to find out."

"I don't want to spend the whole of my life being mad at you. I'll admit, I'm still a little mad for what happened, at myself as well. I know that I should have been there for you, I was just as selfish. Even though I did that, I still wanted to be with you. I went to your house to tell you, and your mom told me that you weren't there. I thought she was just lying, and that you told her to say that, but then I found out you went to New York. I didn't get the chance to tell you that I was sorry." Haley laced her fingers through Brooke's "I'm sorry, Brooke. I know that right now probably isn't the best time to do this considering why you came, but I am."

"I wanted to see you. I came for you, you know that me and my dad didn't get along. I did want to say goodbye, so I could end things properly but, if I knew that you weren't going to be here, I wouldn't have came."

"Why is it that we can be so honest with each other now, but before it was harder to be this honest with ourselves."

"Earlier, I tried to chicken out but, I spent two years thinking of things that I should have said to you, now that I have the chance to do it, I'm not going to not do it."

This made Haley smile. Brooke had changed, she was sure that the outgoing and mischievous girl was still there, but before whenever it came to something serious, Brooke wouldn't be so open like she was being now, at least not without some work to get her to open up. It wasn't that much of a surprise, she guessed that she would have needed to grow up being in the business that she was in. Haley tried to limited her sightings to magazines or television, anything that she knew Brooke would be on so that she didn't need to see her. It hurt whenever she did, but it didn't work. There was always a girl at school who had a magazine that Brooke was in or a guy that had her photo on his locker. It just made her miss her even more. She could honestly say that in those two years there was not one day when she didn't think about her. There was so much more that she wanted to say to her, but she didn't even know how long she was going to be around for. Was there any point in her putting herself out there when Brooke was just going to go back to New York and her new life.

"How long are you staying for?"

"I'm not sure. I planned on going away tomorrow." She replied with a small shrug, "My mom wants me to stay a little longer, maybe I will, I'm not sure yet. I haven't seen her in a long time, and I guess now is a good of a time as any to try and patch things up with her."

"You should." Haley said while nodding her head maybe a little too eagerly "For your mom, that would be cool. Spend time with her and stuff."

"Yeah." Brooke chuckled "Speaking of my mom, I should get going. She will be in the house on her own, and I said I was only going for a walk around the block. I don't think shes ever walked further than our front door to a car, but I'm pretty sure she knows the block isn't that big."

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine, you should get back to her."

"I am sorry for everything. My pride got in the way of me calling."

"We both did some things, and we can't change that. Lets just put it behind us, I don't want to keep living in the past." She looked down and noticed that their hands were still together, shyly she pulled away "So, I'll see you around?"

"I may stay a little longer, I just need to make sure everything is OK with work, I don't want to cancel too much."

"Listen, if you are going to stay then you should come to the beach tomorrow. It is Mouths birthday, and I know he would like to see you, and everyone else. We were all just going to hang out there for a while."

"I don't know. I have a lot of work to do, I have to make sure I'm up to speed on things that I have missed." She whispers, turning away from Haley to look at something ahead of her, anything that isn't Haley's face. She already knows that she is lying.

"It'll be fun. Besides, I'm sure everyone would want to see you. Nathan and Peyton will be there, Lucas, oh and Tim."

"Well if Tim is going to be there." Brooke said, obviously sarcastic.  
"Come on, when was the last time you got to do something that a normal eighteen year old does?"

She's quiet for a moment and then nods her head, "Fine."

"Good," Haley laughs as she moved towards the door which Brooke was currently hanging out of "I can meet you at your house, around 2 o'clock."

"I'll bring my splash and catch set."

Haley smirked "Goodbye, Brooke Davis. I'll see you tomorrow."  
She watched as the petite brunette walked along the streets. One foot crossing over in front of the other, her hips swaying in rhythm as she walked. She definitely had the whole model thing down.

Once she turned the corner and was out of sight, Haley sighed "Don't fall for her, again."


End file.
